So the first Launch conference wrapped up yesterday and after watching the entire conference on Ustream, I wanted to share some thoughts on the startup conference. Overall I thought the conference was very well run and Tyler did yet another awesome job coordinating everything — I sure hope Jason pays him well and not just in Mahalo stock :)

My first very positive comment was that every single startup that presented had a useful concept. I didn’t see one Twitter fart app, not one social media ninja rockstar app, or anything built completely on Twitter. It was frankly a breath of fresh air. If you are a regular reader of CN, you know how I feel about the usefulness of a startup (heck I started one myself!).

Next, the live stream worked great and was free. I certainly hope DEMO will be streamed live and for free this season unlike their $250 fee to watch last season. If Launch, which gave away tons of free tickets, allowed the startups to present for free, charged up to $1,000 for a ticket could provide a free live stream, then how could DEMO not provide the same when they charge up to $2,995 per attendee ticket and charge the startups $20k to present? Why do I continuously push on how important it is that the livestream be available and free? Because people want to talk about the startups when they are presenting – the compounding of comments and chatter is critical – posting a video a day or two later kills the momentum completely.

Unlike the Techcrunch (both TC50 and Disrupt) and DEMO events, Launch had no panels. Launch was definitely an infomercial conference, even more so than DEMO. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing – it certainly kept the day moving where the panels seem to make the days go much longer. On the flipside, I wonder if some attendees are attending for the panels and not for the infomercials? I might look at adding a 15 minute keynote each day that gets the crowd and the startups excited and motivated.

One note to the presenters — a few times the judges provided good feedback and it was either ignored or there was pushback by the presenter. I understand – you just presented your kick butt concept and want nothing but rave reviews. But instead of ignoring or pushing back, welcome the feedback – it shows the judges care about your service and want you to make it better and succeed. And to all presenters, have a look at my post about making your presentation memorable. I think it will help you avoid getting an earful from Dave McClure next time.

Some of the startups I liked include:

• Shoefittr – I have a widefoot – being able to select a shoe that matches my requirements is so much better than ordering multiple sizes and styles only to have to return all but one pair.
• Tripbod – pretty neat idea – I think there are a lot of these services so differentiation will be important but being able to speak with a local is great. I wonder if they would be better with a name like Tripbud as in buddy.
• Room77 – similar to seatguru, Room77 wants to help you find the best room in the hotel – many of us frequent travelers already know which rooms to book but I like this for the masses.
• ShopSquad – personal shopper service – I know the judges weren’t hot on this one but I think it has potential if positioned well – I bet guys would use this to find gifts for their wives, mothers, etc. Maybe charge a flat fee of say $5 per request and allow the request to be sent via email instead of only with video. My concern with the current business model is that the experts will push higher spiff products since the affiliate commissions are split.
• NandiMobile – provides SMS-based customer service for companies located in Africa.

My only real negative comment (and this is a big one) was the complete lack of disclosure by Jason regarding which startups he is already involved with.  I would have preferred to see a “Jason’s crew” section where it was made clear that these are Jason’s companies. But instead the audience, the press, the judges had no idea that Jason is either an investor in, or a board member of several companies. From what I could gather, Jason is invested in Jibe, StorkBrokers and is on the board of Savings.com and I think at least one other company. The lack of disclosures reminds me of the first tc40 event in 2007.

There was some chatter on some of the private discussion boards around the lack of press coverage. RWW and CNET (Rafe Needleman and the Webware crew) had good coverage but many wondered why Mashable had no coverage of the event. Other discussions centered around whether blog posts for conference panels have been replaced by quick blips on Twitter and/or Facebook. We’ve had this discussion before around other events like the NY Tech Meetup which (since I left) basically gets zero event coverage anymore.

Other smaller areas for improvement for the next Launch event include:

• splitting the 1.0 and 2.0 launches – it’s not really fair to compare a new startup in the same set with a major powerhouse company
• having the startups announce how much funding they already have – perhaps this should also play a role in voting – for example, room77 has $3 million in vc funding – does that change how you perceive them versus one of the bootstrapped startups?

I am looking forward to watching DEMO next week – based on the startups I saw the last two days, the DEMO crew has a tall order in front of them.

Find more stories about: Calacanis, conference, Launch Conference, San Francisco, startups

Do you remember the scene in the movie The Rock (no, not that jabroni Rock) where Sean Connery pushed agent Womack over the penthouse balcony? How would you like to stay in the same penthouse suite for 50% off (actually the deal appears to be only 20% off but whatever)?

LivingSocial is running a deal they call “affordable” for the next week for $10,000. If you are located in San Francisco or planning to visit, you could purchase a one-night stay in the penthouse suite at the Fairmont hotel. But you don’t just get a night in the hotel that is up a hill that you will die walking up, you also get to take home the Tiffany forks and knives used with your four-course, private chef prepared meal. The penthouse suite features three bedrooms, a billiards room and a dining room table that seats 60.

You can also drive the Penthouse Maserati Quattroporte for the day. Imagine how awesome you would look driving up to the next tech conference to present your startup in a Maserati! What’s the best part about this deal? They include free Wi-Fi!

In case you are wondering, at the time of this post, 47 packages have been purchased. This does not mean that everyone paid full price because you can use LivingSocial deal bucks on this deal and you can refer others to the deal which would make your deal free.

Find more stories about: group buying, LivingSocial, San Francisco

When I tell my friends that the thing I miss most about NYC are my subways and buses, they think I have lost my marbles. They can’t understand why anyone would miss a subway system that has rats that jump on people while they sleep on trains. Even today, I am 5,000 miles from NYC yet I am monitoring the snow situation on both the rails and buses.

If you are like me (proudly raise your hand!) or if you want to help the earth deal with all of the toxic crap that more cars bring, check out the upcoming TransportationCamp. OpenPlans is producing the event and they describe why now is the perfect time for the unconference, “Transportation is a major metropolitan issue, with direct impacts on economic strength, environmental sustainability, and social equity.  Recent advances in technology (“web 2.0”, mobile computing, open source software, open data and APIs, and spatial analysis) present an opportunity to improve mobility more immediately and at a lower cost than has ever been possible in the past.”

There have been transit events in the past but this event will open to all types of transportation – from bike to rail.

The event organizers note, “major themes of discussion will include: open data — best practices and technical challenges, ways to lower the cost of technology for transportation agencies, and creative new approaches to addressing transportation issues.”

There will be two 2-day events – in NYC on March 5-6 and in San Francisco on March 19-20. Both events are free but donations are welcomed.

Find more stories about: NYC, San Francisco, subway, transportationcamp

After a short delay in transit, I’ve arrived in San Francisco for the Salesforce Dreamforce conference. As I noted last week, I am here to meet potential partners and current customers of CloudContacts. I will also be working on event coverage so stay tuned!

Salesforce says 20,000 people will attend the conference this week and from the look of the crowd inside the Moscone Center – the 20,000 have already arrived!

As I walked from building to building to figure out where to get my pass (everyone sent me in the wrong direction), I noticed a number of Segway vehicles around the Moscone Center. The Segways are all promoting Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The promotion reads, “I didn’t get Forced! I got a cloud-based CRM solution that works the way I do.”

I am not sure if the people on the Segways were just supposed to drive the vehicles or if they are supposed to engage people on the street but I didn’t see any engagement. Some of the people walking down the street (which was very crowded) said that the vehicles were just in the way.

The sides of the moving billboard feature a Microsoft Tag which you can snap with your mobile to get news on Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Find more stories about: CRM, Dreamforce, Microsoft, SalesForce, San Francisco

It’s been too long since I’ve been to the town of tech! I will be making the trip to San Francisco next week for the Salesforce Dreamforce conference. Earlier today CloudContacts launched our integration with Salesforce just in time for the conference (thanks to NextWeb for writing about the launch!).

I will be in town all week and am looking to meet with startups in the contact management, social media and CRM space. I will be at the Dreamforce conference during the week as well — a perfect place to meet and chat. If you are interested in meeting, send me an email with the best days/times for you next week.

I am also looking for good recommendations on the best burger in San Francisco – leave your picks in the comments.

And don’t worry Twitter…I won’t be delivering any cupcakes to your office this trip.

Find more stories about: CenterNetworks, San Francisco

NY-based CB Insights (previously known as ChubbyBrain) has released their CB Insights Venture Capital Activity Report for Q1 2010. If you are new to Chubby Brain and their CB Insights service, checkout our video overview.  The ChubbyBrain team describes their service as, “Bloomberg for high value private companies”. The report is 32 pages in length and features lots of charts and graphs. If you are in the VC area or looking to raise funding, the report is a must read.

ChubbyBrain says the news overall is generally good with the number of total deals rising from 687 to 731. From the report, “Q1 ‘10 saw $5.9B invested across 731 deals, and the quarter’s performance was a marked increase over the year ago quarter which saw $3.9B invested across 483 deals.  As we talked about in our Q4 ’09 report, the psychology and sentiment of entrepreneurs and venture capital investors continues to improve, albeit cautiously.  While $5.9B remains far below quarterly levels seen before the ’08-’09 recession, there is some belief that the VC asset class has perhaps reset at a lower but ultimately more sustainable and healthier level.”

They also note that while the total number of angel deals remained pretty close to the prior quarter, total dollars raised dropped 21%. The report provides an overview and a look at several specific states including New York and California. NY-based firms raised $310 million in venture capital funding.

Here’s the total venture capital investment and deal volume by month:

Here’s the breakdown for New York state deals:

And here is the breakdown for New York state deals by industry:

Find more stories about: CB Insights, ChubbyBrain, new york, NYC, San Francisco, Venture Capital

Earlier today, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom proclaimed that today is “Digg Day”. Apparently what this means is that it is now a law that each resident of San Francisco digg at least one story today. Failure to do so will result in loss of 20 Twitter followers.

Our team of investigative journalists in the bay area have been running around town investigating this story and found the following results of the investigation. Beginning on January 1, 2010, San Francisco will no longer use the Gregorian calendar.  That’s the one that we learn as little kids the rhyme, ”30 days has november, april, june and september”. Going forward San Francisco will use the “Startups Calendar”. This might sound new to some of you and I can confirm after speaking with the people at Gregorian that it is indeed new. They are worried that there might be issues with the new calendar but I explained that San Francisco is always ahead of the curve and is always innovating!

Some of the dates in 2010 have already been booked. For example, our investigation revealed that Facebook has January 10th, Google is bidding on two dates using Google CalendarWords and Twitter has the month of August.  Twitter got the full month after adding the Mayor to the suggested user list.

After speaking with the city “calendaring task force for calendars”, we have learned that from December 15-21, there will be an open nomination process for other dates.

The nomination process is simple. Startup founders may nominate their startup for a day. The startup must have less than $72.13 billion in revenue (this is per the nomination rules for that startup awards thing), at least 300 Twitter followers and 152.1 Facebook Friends. We also learned that if the startup is using MySpace, they are disqualified. Now you might  be wondering what happens if say Seesmic and Kyte pick the same day. That’s simple – article 12, paragraph 1 states that the startup with the most Twitter followers receive the date.

If you would like to nominate your startup or find out more about the rules, go here for complete details.

Find more stories about: Digg, San Francisco, startups

When you ride the subway, have you ever thought, “boy I’d like to get her on my Twitter”. Or what about, “his tush belongs on my Facebook”. Perhaps, “She would be a great friend for my feed”. But the problem is that it’s hard to go up to someone and tell them about your interests and desires on a train.

There’s a new service that will help you reveal your interests in a man or a woman named SubwayCrush. The service currently serves NYC, London, San Francisco, Boston and Chicago. The idea is simple…find someone on the train you are interested in, write up the person’s specs on SubwayCrush and then the person might just answer. Naturally the more people who know about, and use, SubwayCrush, the better chance you have for a match.

You can view all “crushes” by city or by type (e.g m4w, m4m, w4m, w4w). You must enter the rail line you were on when you found your crush — this helps narrow down who it might be. I hear stories all the time about people finding love on the subway. I did a search for “hot male entrepreneur who also runs a tech blog” on a few of the subway lines in NYC but I came up empty.

I am guessing at some point they will add the ability to post photos – which might be a bit creepy. They should also add the ability to signup for alerts based on location and/or subway line.

The service was created by NY-based Lolz.

Find more stories about: Boston, Chicago, InsideTransit, London, NYC, San Francisco, social media, Social Networking

If you are as old as I am, you might remember the days of Fedex’ing comps back and forth from designer/agency to client for approvals. The process was long and expensive and, many times, took some of the “oomph” out of the team waiting for either a signoff or feedback on more items to change.

In these current times, a variety of applications have appeared to make website and document reviews easier. There’s ProofHQ based in the UK, ConceptShare out of Canada, and Argentinian-based ColaabFlow.

A new feedback application has hit the private beta scene recently named Notable. Notable describes their service as, “Quickly and easily give feedback on design, content, and code on any page of a website or application without leaving your browser. Notable helps your team collaborate through visual feedback on screenshots, via a chaos-free process so that everyone can express their opinion.”

There is also a browser plugin which allows you to bring any webpage into Notable for group review and annotation. This can be helpful when analyzing the competition with your team. I like how they build permissions into the system which allow for certain team members to see the designs at certain times. Notable also offers a historical dashboard which can be used to “remember” decisions from previous reviews.

Monthly plans range from $44-119 and Notable offers a free account which is limited to three users and one workspace.

Also…have a look at our CreationFlow, ProofHQ and ConceptShare coverage.

Find more stories about: Notable, Reviews, San Francisco, startups

Yesterday I made my way from the WWDC to Kara’s Cupcakes and then to the Twitter HQ. The woman at Kara’s Cupcakes remembered the person who bought cupcakes and then got on the suggested user list (I am told she is no longer on the list).

My video experience is posted below – I left out the piece from inside their office. I spoke with a couple of Twitter employees who told me that you can’t get on the list by delivering cupcakes. Apparently you either get on the list if you are an “editor’s pick” or if you get a big boost in “velocity” which means that you get massive followers in a short time.

Tomorrow I will explain why I think that having default lists on any service is a good thing – except when they are used the way Twitter (and to a big extent Friendfeed) are using the lists. I have put some of my thoughts in the video below.

Thanks to everyone who participated in my fun posts over the past week!

Find more stories about: San Francisco, Twitter

Yesterday I asked for some help identifying the proper cupcake to take with me when I visit the Twitter HQ next week. In case you are new to this blog mini-series, I am attempting to get on the Twitter default list (otherwise known as the suggested user list). What we know is that cupcakes work and now I know that the previously used cupcakes come from Kara’s Cupcakes. I am also looking forward to meeting Kara and learning about her special cupcakes!

On the other hand, last night I had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. While waiting for my food to arrive, I took a walk over to their cheesecake display and filmed the video below. After checking out how sweet the cakes looked, I am now wondering if a thick slice of one of the cakes in the video might actually work better. Perhaps these cakes would get not only me on the default list but another user of my choosing! Like a cupcake is equal to one default list user and a cheesecake slice is worth one plus a friend?

Any input is greatly appreciated!

Find more stories about: San Francisco, Twitter

I will be in San Francisco this weekend and Monday and would love to get a meetup (known forthwith as CNup) scheduled. We could either do a brunch on Saturday morning or a more traditional meetup on Monday evening. I am working on getting valley superstar startup blogger Louis Gray to attend in his new sweet ride (1 mile rides will be available for $20).

I am staying in downtown San Francisco but am willing to travel for best results. So if you are interested in meeting, shooting some startup videos and rapping about other tech blogs, leave your thoughts on local and preferred time in the comments.

Also – should you decide to place an order with my startup, bring your business cards with you to the CNup and grab a cool bonus 20% extra cards for your order.

Find more stories about: business cards, CenterNetworks, Meetup, San Francisco

When I was a young kid trying to make a buck, I quickly learned that the most important thing I offered was my service. I actually got more business just by providing great customer service and that made me just continue to increase the service I provided. Whether it was selling newspapers, coding HTML for a client, buying millions of dollars in media or processing business cards, service has always been my differentiator. When I work with startups, I stress the importance of providing the best possible support at all times.

I’ve heard stories about how tough it is to actually get any help from Twitter’s customer service but until recently I haven’t had a need to contact them for help. In January, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone heralded their great support department on the Twitter blog so I was certainly hoping for a quick resolution to my issue.

Here’s an overview of my issue and why I’ve contacted support for help. I am having an issue with my @cloudcontacts account. For some reason, I can’t get the account to work correctly. Half of the time when I load twitter.com, I get a login box which won’t let me login. However if I just refresh the page enough times (never the same number), eventually it lets me in. Direct messages never show up correctly, and when people try to access the page for the @cloudcontacts account, they too get a "That page doesn’t exist!" message but if you refresh that page, you eventually get the account too (although today the account seems to not show up as many times as I refresh). I can’t reset the password because it gets stuck in this "no account/yes account" problem. I’ve tried to create a new @cloudcontacts account – the registration page says it’s available, but on submission, it says it’s taken.

I went ahead and submitted an issue ticket (which was hell because they want you to be logged in which as you can see above only works on random loads). I received a quick auto-reply with a message about passwords but nothing about what happens next. I replied to that message asking for additional help but heard nothing back. This week I submitted another ticket with more specific details about the issue after the research I did. This time I didn’t receive a password auto-reply, instead, I received the following reply:

Your request has been received, and is being reviewed by our support staff. Twitter Support is currently experiencing a backlog: in some cases, it may be 5 to 7 business days before you receive a reply. Problems and issues will be investigated first, followed by general requests and questions.

Does this mean I will receive any help? My issue is certainly a "problem" and not a general request or question. Based on the people who emailed me after my first tweet about the issue, the answer is "who knows". Orli Yakuel of the popular Go2Web20 directory has a good post about the (lack of) support that Twitter provides. She’s waiting over a month as are countless others pleading for help.

I’ve tried twittering/messaging to the Twitter founders but they haven’t replied either.

Here’s a company that is in their honeymoon period where blogs and mainstream media can’t get enough of the service (more on that later). Twitter has raised $55 million dollars in funding. If there is a backlog of support issues as the auto-reply states, why not take a tiny bit of cash, hire 10-20 support people for a week, and get the backlog resolved? I am willing to bet that the majority of support issues would take minutes to resolve or answer and more customers would be satisfied.

Let’s forget about the customer for a minute and think about if we were working at Twitter. How great would it be to get the queue cleared out so we don’t have to see a backlog everyday and could focus on the product?

The interesting thing here is that Twitter is heralded as this great platform for providing customer service with major companies like Zappos, Dell, Comcast, Mosso and JetBlue using the service for support. Yet the underlying platform company doesn’t provide the same level of support for the companies who use their platform.

I am sharing this long story for one reason: for you to take a moment and think about the support you provide on your web applications. Are you making sure each and everyday that your customers are satisfied with the support you provide?

My hope is that the issue listed above is resolved expeditiously so I can use the account to communicate with my customers and during the SXSW festival. I will report back once the issue is resolved.

Find more stories about: Customer Service, Quick News, San Francisco, Twitter

We have a winner for the free full ticket to the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco at the end of March. We are a media sponsor and were given a ticket to give away. Unlike the others who force you to tweet or say how great a product is, ours was a simple contact entry form. And boy did we receive entries — the most for any sweeps we’ve run!

With that said, the winner is:

Deanna R from Buffalo, New York

If for some reason Deanna cannot fulfill the duties of winner, then the alternate winner is Rajiv D from San Francisco. I will be in contact with Deanna shortly to confirm her attendance.

A few of you asked about covering the event as press for CN and I will follow up with ya’all in the coming week. Thanks to everyone who participated!

Find more stories about: Conferences, Quick News, San Francisco, Web 2.0 Expo

Only a few more days left to enter!

The Web 2.0 Expo will be held in San Francisco this year and is just a month away. CN is a media sponsor of the event and I was able to get the O’Reilly and TechWeb teams to give me one full conference pass to give away to a CN Reader. If you would like the pass, submit your information and on February 15, 2009 we will pick a winner.

If you would like to cover the event for CN, let me know as well. Check out our previous Web 2.0 Expo coverage.

Enter Here for the conference pass by sending in your contact info.

Find more stories about: Conferences, Quick News, San Francisco, Web 2.0 Expo